BadgerGravling's Pop Kulture

It’s quite funny that I came to science fiction properly as a fan in my 20s, mainly spurred by my interest in the internet. I’d actually spent most of my early teens reading fantasy novels, following the traditional route of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, and moving onto the Dungeons and Dragons related series, which were a bit like the Mills & Boon of the fantasy world.
At some point I’d encountered a William Gibson book or two and quite liked them, but re-reading them after I’d encountered the internet was a revelation which has led to going through the Gibson catalogue, and at the same time, I’d started reading Cory Doctorow.
Through Doctorow I’d heard the name Charles Stross, and browsing a local charity shop I stumbled on The Hidden Family, so took a chance.

And it’s pretty good. Ironically it turns out Stross started writing articles for roleplaying magazine White Dwarf, so I’d probably actually read his stuff when I was dabbling in painting figurines. The Hidden Family is actually the second in the Merchant Princes series, about clans which can transport themselves between parallel worlds, which have diverged over time to offer alternate levels of technology and progress. The heroine, Miriam, has grown up in our world, only to discover her lineage in an alternate world which is more feudal than ours, but which has access to our reality sufficient enough to set up businesses and merchant routes, hence the title.

It’s interesting in that rather than revelling in the immense detail Gibson puts into clothes, vehicles and gadgets, Stross puts the same effort into the business models for inter-reality trading. But it’s not an economics story, as there’s plenty of action, and also some light relief and comedy in the portrayal of the various worlds.

It’s definitely good enough for me to search out the rest of the series, even if it means paying full price rather than hoping they’ll appear in the local charity shop!